It was disheartening to see New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Acting Commissioner Anthony Annucci’s flippant remark in response to a challenge given to him to spend at least 24 hours in a solitary confinement cell, as the DOC Commissioner did in Colorado before ending solitary in his prisons.

Annunci’s insensitive and inappropriate understanding of what a stay in solitary confinement looks like is unfortunate, but not surprising. Someone who has never spent an appreciable second in solitary confinement can easily say that “it would be the best night’s sleep I ever had.”

I spent an aggregate of approximately seven years in solitary on several different occasions. The longest single time was 2 ½ years. Take it from someone who has been there, it’s no Holiday Inn Express.

Spending a night in solitary is no Motel 6 either although they do “leave the lights on for you”…only sometimes that’s all day and all night. The minute you enter a solitary unit the very first thing you do is hear the cacophonous sounds of the incessant banging, primal screaming, crying, yelling, howling and other discordant noises that do not stop. The soundtrack to solitary alone is enough to drive most people mad, if not to suicide. The smells and sights are unnerving, but the sense of loneliness and isolation that envelops you and permeates the atmosphere is beyond description; it is something that you have to experience to fully comprehend or appreciate. However, that experience comes at grave costs because the loneliness, inactivity and isolation compromises your health and well-being mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

We ask citizens to support proposed legislation Human Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement Act A.3080B/S.4787A which would would end the torture of solitary confinement ensuring that no person is held in solitary beyond 15 days, which in line with international standards.

The public can visit New York’s Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement’s replica solitary confinement cell at South Wedge Mission Church, 125 Caroline St. on March 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; on March 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and March 3 from noon to 4 p.m.

And if Annucci really wants to impress me, let him stay in the replica solitary cell for one hour. I bet after that he’d be less flippant with his remarks and more than ready to do what DOC administrators the world over are doing — ending the torture of men, women and children through the long term use of solitary confinement.

Jerome R. Wright is Upstate Organizer, New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement.